Mistaken informant doesn't regret actions

Homeland security

''I don't feel badly about what I've done,'' the 44-year-old Cartersville woman said in an interview Saturday.

Stone was eating with her 18-year-old son at a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun on Thursday when she says she overheard three men talking about blowing up buildings and laughing about the Sept. 11 attacks.

Her tip led authorities to issue an alert about a possible terrorist plot in the Miami area, and the men were eventually stopped early Friday after running through a toll booth near Naples, Fla. No explosives were found and investigators said their ''alarming'' comments may have just been a joke.

Stone said she was sitting just a few feet from the men when she heard one say, ''They think they were sad on 9/11, wait until 9/13.''

Stone said another commented, ''Do you think we have enough to bring it down?'' Another replied ''If we don't have enough to bring it down, I have contacts and we can get enough to bring it down.''

''I am not a racist, and I am not ignorant,'' she said in Sunday's edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. ''I was just trying to do what's best.''

Ayman Gheith, 27, Kambiz Butt, 25, both from suburban Chicago, and Omar Choudhary, 23, of Independence, Mo., were on their way from Chicago to a South Florida hospital for a nine-week training program. They said they had completed medical training at Ross University in the Caribbean island nation of Dominica and wanted to find an apartment in Miami.

Stone, a 44-year-old nurse, is a local hero among residents who say she should be praised for staying alert to threats.

''Making fun of Sept. 11 -- nobody should do that,'' said Stone.

Asked by the Atlanta newspaper what she would say to the men, Stone said, ''I would say they have the world by the tail. They're young. They're going to be doctors. Why mess it up? Why say something like that, even if it was a joke?''

If the incident was a joke, authorities may have a hard time making a criminal case against the men, legal experts told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

''The only state offense I can think of -- if the state could prove they intentionally spoke in such manner so other could hear -- is possibly reckless conduct, said Dan Summer, a former Hall County assistant district attorney. ''It's not a terroristic threat.''